An occasional bad review from a dissatisfied customer is unavoidable when you run your own business. When those sort of negative reviews pop up, writing a public response where you Acknowledge Apologize, and Make it Right is usually sufficient. However, when a customer deviates from simply writing a negative review and posts something that is inappropriate, hateful, or libelous, it’s important to take more drastic action. Rather than making a public response, you instead will want to immediately flag and report the comment to the platform’s administrators.
Here are step-by-step directions on how to do just that and get inappropriate comments removed from your business pages on the most heavily used platforms: Google, Yelp, and Facebook. It's important to remember that you cannot flag a review simply because it is negative. You should only flag a review if it violates the review site's terms. This typically includes reviews that are considered harassment, hate speech, violent in nature, illegal, or contain adult content.
How to flag reviews on Google
1. Locate the three horizontal dots in the upper right hand corner of the review you want to flag
2. Next, click the button “Report Review”
3. On the next page, choose the reason for you are flagging the review and click "Report" to submit
How to flag reviews on Yelp
1. Locate the horizontal dots on the upper right hand corner of the review in question
2. Click on the button “Report Review” on the bottom of the screen
3. Choose the most accurate reason for your report
4. Explain the reason for your report and press “Send” in the upper right hand corner of the screen
How to flag reviews on Facebook
1. If you have administrative access to your Facebook business page, go to the review you want to flag and click on the exclamation point icon on the upper right hand side; if you do not have administrative access, you will instead want to click on the three horizontal dots and then choose “Give feedback on this post”
2. Choose the reason and hit "Send;" if you are not the page administrator, you will additionally need to indicate whether it is you or a friend is Being Harassed, before clicking “Send.”
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